Saturday, December 30, 2006

At least one Web site promised to show Saddam Hussein's hanging live on the Internet if Iraq TV airs the execution.

JumpTV is a pioneer in the delivery of international television over the Internet.

JumpTV operates at the intersection of two growth sectors: Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and ethnic media services. The JumpTV experience re-connects culturally diverse individuals with media from their native land and to others in their community.

JumpTV has partnered with more than 180 television broadcasters from over 60 countries to provide live broadcasting of their 24-hour linear feeds.

Partners' channels are available on the JumpTV network to viewers from around the world through an ordinary broadband Internet connection on their home computers, laptops, Internet-enabled televisions and mobile devices.

The JumpTV experience with a high-speed connection (Cable, ADSL, DSL or ISDN) will allow you to receive a picture at up to 30 frames per second, which is comparable to conventional television.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Clearwire Corp planned to IPO earlier this year when it looked to raise around $400 million, then chipmaker Intel and cell phone manufacturer Motorola pumped nearly $900 million into the company.

It has legendary telecom executive Craig McCaw at the helm, years ago, McCaw cobbled together the U.S.'s first nationwide cellular empire, which he sold to old AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1994. Clearwire's shares are expected to be listed under symbol CLWR.

Another contender in the WIMAX space again going for an early IPO is NextWave, expected to trade under the symbol WAVE. Both companies hope eventually to make their money, at least in part, from building out WiMAX networks.

Market researcher Gartner Dataquest expects the North American WiMAX services market to swell from 30,000 connections in 2006 to 21.2 million by 2011.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Gmarket is Korea's leading e-commerce marketplace, offering buyers a fun, convenient and secure shopping experience and sellers a flexible and comprehensive sales solution.

Gmarket reported total revenues of $43.5 million (Won 41.2 billion) for the third quarter of 2006, representing a 125% increase from total revenues of $19.3 million (Won 18.3 billion) in the third quarter of 2005.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

WR Hambrecht raises its price target on Riverbed Technology (Nasdaq: RVBD) from $25 to $40, saying, since its IPO in September, the company has continually stayed one step ahead of the competition while creating considerable shareholder value.

The firm said, "Based on our recent channel checks, we believe the Company is currently tracking ahead of plan for the December quarter. We feel that strength has been driven by impressive customer additions, large-sized Steelhead projects with 'one powerful tail', and a compelling product roadmap-all of which we believe poise the Company to continue growth and market share gains well into 2007 and beyond."

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Riverbed Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:RVBD), the performance leader in wide-area data services (WDS), announced today that eWEEK, a Ziff Davis Media publication and one of the industry’s leading enterprise IT magazines, named Riverbed’s Steelhead® appliance to its list of “Top Five Storage Developments of the Year” and as a “Top Product of 2006.” Riverbed® was previously named winner of eWEEK’s Excellence Award in the category of Network Infrastructure. Victor Loh, technology analyst with eWEEK Labs notes that Riverbed’s Steelhead appliances hit all the marks of a best-in-class WAN optimization product, offering leading edge bandwidth optimization through highly intelligent data caching, TCP optimization and other protocol-specific enhancements. To view the stories, visit eWEEK Labs Picks the Top Products of 2006 and eWEEK Labs: Victor Loh’s Top Five Storage Developments of the Year.

Riverbed adds this recognition to its list of many awards garnered over the past year, validating Riverbed’s Steelhead appliances as the industry’s leading WDS solution. In addition to being named as one of the top five storage developments of the year and as a top product of 2006, Riverbed has also been recognized by many of the leading technology publications for other innovations, including:

“The power and simplicity of our Steelhead appliances is no accident,” said Eric Wolford, senior vice president, marketing and business development. “From day one, we designed our products to address the business challenges created by today’s globally distributed workforce and virtual value chain business models. We continue to rely on our global customer base to guide our development team and inform our roadmap. This recognition by eWEEK is an acknowledgement of the work we’ve done to create an integrated and intelligent solution to the networking, application, and storage issues that together slow the performance of distributed networks and cause globally distributed knowledge workers to suffer painfully slow application and file transfer speeds.”

In addition, Riverbed was recently positioned by Gartner in the leaders quadrant in the “Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controller [WOC], 2006”1 published in October 2006 and authored by Andy Rolfe and Joe Skorupa. See the full report at www.riverbed.com/gartner.

About Riverbed’s Steelhead Appliances

Riverbed’s wide-area data services (WDS) solutions enable organizations with more than one office to overcome a host of severe problems, including poor application performance and insufficient bandwidth at remote sites. By speeding the performance of applications between distributed sites, by five to 50 times and in some cases up to 100 times between enterprise datacenters and remote offices, Riverbed’s award-winning Steelhead WDS appliances enable companies to consolidate IT, improve backup and replication processes to ensure data integrity, and improve staff productivity and collaboration. Steelhead appliances have been deployed in organizations ranging from the world’s largest corporations with offices around the globe to small companies with a couple of sites that are just miles apart.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the expected demand for Riverbed’s products and services and statements relating to Riverbed’s ability to meet the needs of distributed organizations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions, that, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include our ability to react to trends and challenges in our business and the markets in which we operate; our ability to anticipate market needs or develop new or enhanced products to meet those needs; the adoption rate of our products; our ability to establish and maintain successful relationships with our distribution partners; our ability to compete in our industry; fluctuations in demand, sales cycles and prices for our products and services; shortages or price fluctuations in our supply chain; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; general political, economic and market conditions and events; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. More information about these and other risks that may impact Riverbed’s business are set forth in our Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed with the SEC, including the “Risk Factors” section in our final Prospectus dated September 20, 2006, and in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on October 31, 2006. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

About Riverbed

Riverbed Technology is the performance leader in wide-area data services (WDS) solutions for companies worldwide. By enabling application performance over the wide area network (WAN) that is orders of magnitude faster than what users experience today, Riverbed is changing the way people work, and enabling a distributed workforce that can collaborate as if they were local. Additional information about Riverbed (Nasdaq:RVBD) is available at www.riverbed.com.

Riverbed Technology, Riverbed, Steelhead, RiOS, Interceptor, and the Riverbed logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riverbed Technology, Inc. All other trademarks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted October 4, 2006 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors place in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Ziff Davis Media Inc.

Ziff Davis Media is a leading integrated media company serving the technology and videogame markets. The Company is an information services provider of technology media including publications, websites, conferences, events, eSeminars, eNewsletters, custom publishing, list rentals, research and market intelligence. In the United States, the Company publishes 7 magazines including PC Magazine, eWEEK, CIO Insight, Baseline, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Computer Gaming World and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. The Company exports the power of its brands internationally, with publications in 48 countries and 19 languages. Ziff Davis leverages its content on the Internet with a network of highly-targeted technology and gaming sites including PCMag.com, eWEEK.com, ExtremeTech.com and 1UP.com. The Company also produces highly-targeted b-to-b and consumer technology events including DigitalLife. With its main headquarters and PC Magazine Labs based in New York, Ziff Davis Media also has offices and lab facilities in the San Francisco and Boston markets. Additional information is available at www.ziffdavis.com.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Linksys has unveiled a wVoIP handset today, the WIP320 called the iPhone, a term Linksys-parent company Cisco has owned the trademark to since 2000. The news follows years of speculation as to whether Apple would release an iPod-like mobile phone, which many in the industry took to calling the "iPhone." The Linksys iPhone joins six other handsets in the company's VoIP handset portfolio, but will surely be the most memorable.

Gizmodo caused quite a stir in the blogosphere on Friday by predicting that the iPhone would launch today, but that the phone wouldn't be as expected. Little did we know that Cisco has apparently owned the trademark for iPhone since 2000, when it acquired a company called Infogear, which registered an iPhone trademark in 1996.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Search company Google is Adobe Systems' "heat shield" against Microsoft, Adobe's chief executive said in an interview published in the German financial weekly Euro am Sonntag.

While most of the attention has focused on Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen's comment that legal action against Microsoft over PDF (Portable Document Format) remained on the table, Chizen also applauded Google for distracting his Redmond, Wash., rival.

"Oh, I love Google," Chizen was quoted as saying. "Google is a big threat for Microsoft and distracts it from the rest of us. [Google] is simultaneously our heat shield and an important partner."

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Google Inc. (GOOG) said it signed an agreement to resell Web addresses for closely held GoDaddy.com, a unit of Go Daddy Group Inc., and eNom Inc. as part of its effort to penetrate the small-business and education market with a suite of free online services.

The domain-name offering will make it easier for customers to use the suite, Google Apps for Your Domain, Google said. The Mountain View, Calif., company plans to sell domains for $10 a year and will initially support addresses ending in .com, .org, .net, .biz, and .info.

The suite, launched in August and hosted on Google's computers, has been seen as an assault on Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Office applications. It includes communication tools like the Gmail Web-email and Talk instant-messaging services, an online calendar application, Web-page creation tools and a "start page" where customers' employees can access applications and content.

Google executives have said that the company's word-processing and spreadsheet programs, introduced in October, are "good candidates" to be added to the Apps for Your Domain lineup.

According to eNom's Web site, the Bellevue, Wash., company sells domain names to resellers for between $6.95 and $8.95 each a year. GoDaddy, of Scottsdale, Ariz., sells domains to resellers for $7 to $7.75 per name, plus an annual fee and additional charges for hosting and security certificates, according to its site.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Morgenthaler Ventures (www.morgenthaler.com/ventures), a leading, national venture-capital firm focused on both life-science and IT investments, closed out 2006 with three IPOs and two significant M&A events. Morgenthaler's major investment themes for 2006 include 'Graceful Aging,' next-generation advertising, IT consolidation and cleantech. In 2006, Morgenthaler's partners completed the first full year of its tenth fund (MP VIII, which closed in October, 2005, with total committed capital of $450 million) by investing and reserving about one-third of the fund. New investments in 2006 include three life-science companies and five IT companies.

Menlo Park, CA (PRWEB) December 11, 2006 -- Morgenthaler Ventures (www.morgenthaler.com/ventures), a leading, national venture-capital firm focused on both life-science and IT investments, closed out 2006 with three IPOs and two significant M&A events.

IPOs: Morgenthaler's Life Science Team saw two of its biotech portfolio companies, Threshold Pharmaceuticals (www.thresholdpharm.com) and Replidyne (www.replidyne.com), make initial public offerings, as did one of its device portfolio companies, Thermage (www.thermage.com). In addition, another medical-device company, Xtent (www.xtentinc.com), filed its S-1 document with the SEC in preparation for an IPO.

M&As: Avidia, a biotech portfolio company, was acquired by Amgen (www.amgen.com) in October for $360 million -- one of the largest biotech acquisition exits in recent years. In addition, Cortina Systems, a next-generation chip company, acquired an over $100 million revenue Intel unit producing optoelectronic components in September. Cortina is in the process of rolling up other communications chip companies and seems headed toward becoming one of the major players in its markets.

Bob Pavey, Morgenthaler's general partner, noted: "What should be clear from portfolio companies that have exited or are approaching exit is: 1) the firm's philosophy of investing steadily through good times and bad is the correct one and 2) that many of our best investments have come in areas that other investors had either written off or overlooked.

"In IT, that meant investing heavily in Internet services and digital media when it was out of favor before the recent resurgence in consumer Internet investments; in semiconductors that has meant investing in communications chips just when telecommunications investment generally was collapsing; in cleantech that has meant investing in energy-saving lighting before the implications of high-energy costs had sunk in; in biotech that has meant investing in early-stage technology when other VCs were abandoning it, and in medical devices that meant investing in drug-eluting stents when virtually everyone had concluded that the market was best tackled by large companies," Pavey continued.

Morgenthaler's Major Investment Themes

Graceful AgingRobin Bellas, a Morgenthaler general partner in the firm's Life Science Team, said: "In our estimation, we will continue to see strong exit opportunities for life-science companies -- biotech, medical devices and also healthcare service companies. All three areas offer investors opportunities for growth that ride a major demographic trend of older people who are living longer and with higher quality lives, a trend we call 'Graceful Aging.' Such trends help make life-science companies relatively immune to down cycles in the overall economy." Bellas sees the likelihood that as many as three life-science portfolio companies will file for IPOs in 2007.

Next-Generation AdvertisingGary Little, a Morgenthaler general partner who focuses on software and Internet services, said: "2006 saw the advancement of video games and cell phones, which led to consumers spending less and less time in front of their televisions. Accordingly, companies are changing the way they advertise in order to more effectively reach key markets. Mobile and in-game marketers are able to tailor messages to a specific audience and demographic yielding more successful results and we look forward to continued growth in these emerging areas in 2007."

In May, Morgenthaler invested in a cutting-edge advertising company, IGA Worldwide (www.igaworldwide.com), which focuses on enabling advertisers and game publishers to tap into the in-game advertising market and reach tens of millions of avid game players. In October, Morgenthaler announced a follow-on round of investing in another next-generation advertising company, Rhythm NewMedia (www.rhythmnewmedia.com), which provides new revenue streams for wireless carriers and effective advertising for brands. Morgenthaler has long been an investor in next-generation advertising companies, starting with its initial investment in NexTag (www.nextag.com) in 1999.

IT ConsolidationDrew Lanza, a Morgenthaler general partner who concentrates on semiconductors and other component-related investments, foresees continued consolidation of the information technology business that will offer opportunities for attractive exits for venture-capital investors. "It started with the consolidation of the telecommunications carriers and is now working its way down the supply chain, where a few large suppliers in each important IT category are emerging. Combine that with new late-stage financing opportunities from hedge funds and others with a surplus of investment capital, and we're starting to see conditions that look a lot like a boom."

CleantechGreg Blonder, a Morgenthaler general partner who invests in cleantech projects, predicts that "cleantech, while hot, will not boil over into excessive speculation. That's because many of these projects -- like more-efficient alternative fuel production -- require so much investment that even private equity is stretched to meet its demands. Second, many solutions for saving energy are low tech -- like changes in zoning regulations and architectural design. In that regard, we have seen a dramatic shift in mindset towards energy efficiency in just the last year."

Lamina Ceramics, a New Jersey-based Morgenthaler portfolio company, signed a distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics, a preeminent electronics distributor in November. Lamina (www.laminaceramics.com) is the developer of economical LED lighting whose sunlight-quality brightness surpasses traditional incandescent bulbs and whose efficiency surpasses fluorescent lighting. According to Blonder, LED lighting is now on a path to virtually eliminate 80 percent of electricity consumption devoted to electric lighting. Blonder expects to make one major additional energy investment in early 2007.

Overall, Morgenthaler continued to focus on identifying disruptive and early-stage opportunities with typical investments of between $5 million to $15 million per company over several rounds. In 2006, Morgenthaler's partners completed the first full year of its tenth fund (MP VIII, which closed in October, 2005, with total committed capital of $450 million) by investing and reserving about one-third of the fund. New investments in 2006 include three life-science companies -- Catalyst Biosciences (www.catalystbiosciences.com); a yet-to-be-announced portfolio company developed by The Foundry, one of the premier medical-device incubators in the country (www.the-foundry.com); and Medior, an anti-fibrosis biotech company (www.mediorpharma.com). It also made new investments in IT companies, including Blue Arc (www.bluearc.com), IGA Worldwide (www.igaworldwide.com), Intelleflex (www.intelleflex.com), MuleSource (www.mulesource.com), and ZeroG (www.zerogwireless.com).

About MorgenthalerMorgenthaler is a leading, national venture-capital and buyout firm with offices in Menlo Park, CA; Boston, MA; Princeton, NJ, Boulder, CO; and Cleveland, OH. Its venture-capital team focuses on life sciences and information technology. Its Internet-services investments include: NexTag, SNOCAP, Orb Networks, imeem, Digital Railroad, IGA Worldwide and Rhythm New Media. Its life-science investments include Xtent, Emphasys, Satiety, GlobeImmune, Bayhill and OncoMed. Its semiconductor and component investments include Brion, Peregrine Semiconductor, Paratek, Cortina, and Lamina Ceramics. The firm has approximately $2.5 billion under management and has funded more than 250 companies over its 38-year history. For more information on Morgenthaler portfolio companies and the firm, please visit: www.morgenthaler.com.

LG Electronics, a worldwide technology leader in mobile communications, and Prada, one of the world’s leading brands in the luxury goods industry, today announce an exclusive partnership to develop an innovative and iconic mobile phone.

The first Prada telephone by LG will combine high-end technology with avant-garde design offering the best in both style and performance. This forward-thinking product is the result of a different approach to the typical fashion designer and mobile phone manufacturer co-branding exercise. Leveraging on their respective expertise and know-how, Prada and LG have jointly explored and developed all aspects of this new product. The collaboration focused on the key elements inside the phone, such as software, user interface and music as well as its look, for example design and packaging.

The result is a unique, sophisticated and elegant phone, with an advanced touch interface which eliminates the conventional keypad.

The initial launch is planned for early 2007, with distribution starting in Europe (firstly in Italy, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany), followed by countries in Asia such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. The Korean version of the phone is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2007.

“Here at LG, we are very excited by this partnership,” says Mr. Mun-Hwa Park, President & CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. He continues, “Prada’s legacy for classic and sophisticated design meant they were the perfect partner to develop this shared vision of innovative technology and ultimate style. We are passionate about developing exclusive phones that appeal to consumer’s desire to express their personality through their choice of mobile and feel very strongly that Prada shares this belief.”

Mr. Patrizio Bertelli, President & CEO of Prada, said: “As we do with ready-to-wear and accessories, we were looking at a break-through. Consistently with our approach, we are not branding an existing product; rather, Miuccia and I have been working with LG to give this new phone a very strong character and unique style, both in its contents and in its design. We, just like our partners at LG, are known for the attention to detail and uncompromising quality of our products. And we find these characteristics in the new mobile phone.”

Prada

Prada is one of the world’s leading brands in design, production and distribution of luxury ready-to-wear, handbags, small leather goods, footwear, eyewear and fragrances. Prada, together with Miu Miu, Car Shoe and Azzedine Alaïa, is part of the Prada Group, which operates 211 stores in major markets around the world and distributes its products through a network of selected, high-end multi-brand shops and luxury department stores.

LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company

LG Electronics, Inc. (KSE: 06657.KS) is the global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications, employing more than 72,000 people working in over 120 operations including 80 subsidiaries around the world. Comprised of four business units: Mobile Communications, Digital Appliance, Digital Display and Digital Media with global sales at USD 34.7 billion (consolidated USD 43.4 billion) as of 2005, LG Electronics is the world’s leading provider of CDMA handsets, residential air conditioners, plasma panels, optical storage products, DVD players and home theatre system.

LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company is the world’s leading provider of UMTS (WCDMA), CDMA and GSM handsets, which have been designed to improve the value of customer life. With a total range of wired and wireless solutions, the company is rapidly establishing a global presence and growing its international market share in 3G handsets.

"These customer wins highlight how quickly Riverbed's footprint and momentum in the Korean government and enterprise markets is growing," said Jerry Kennelly, CEO of Riverbed. "We officially launched our Korean operations in October 2005. Since then, we've worked with strategic customers in key verticals and with our channel partners to rapidly grow our customer base in a highly competitive market. The successful deployment at the Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is further proof of the market demand for Riverbed's WDS solutions."

Korean reseller Comtec Information is the latest reseller to join the Riverbed Partner Network. As a Riverbed partner, Comtec will have access to comprehensive tools, technical assistance, and resources to facilitate business growth and overall success in selling Riverbed's patented, groundbreaking WDS solutions. Other Riverbed partners in Korea include Expernet, Maverick Systems and Hitachi Data Systems.

Monday, December 11, 2006

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HP (NYSE: HPQ) (Nasdaq: HPQ) and Cingular Wireless today announced availability of the first notebook PC in the United States to feature built-in global mobile broadband capabilities.

The HP Compaq nc6400 Notebook PC with integrated Cingular Wireless UMTS/HSDPA-based technology allows business professionals to connect in more areas at broadband speeds to corporate networks, email and the Internet without being tied to a wireless hotspot.(1)

Customers can now enjoy the benefits of mobile broadband both in the United States – either with Cingular Wireless BroadbandConnect or high-speed EDGE services – and abroad in more than 115 countries in which there are UMTS or GPRS/EDGE networks available.(1) The HP Compaq nc6400 is the first notebook with a tri-band UMTS modem supporting data rates of up to 3.6 megabits per second in the United States and in many countries around the world.(2)

The notebook’s design gives customers the flexibility to purchase the nc6400 and later upgrade to Cingular Wireless’ 3G network by adding an HP Broadband Wireless Module.(3)

HP and Cingular Wireless will jointly market the new business notebook.

“HP and Cingular Wireless are expanding the boundaries of mobile computing both within the U.S. and abroad with products like the HP Compaq nc6400 Notebook PC,” said Carol Hess-Nickels, director, worldwide business notebook marketing, Personal Systems Group, HP. “By integrating our powerful and innovative computing products with Cingular Wireless’ 3G network, we enable our mobile customers to stay connected in more places to the people and information that are most important to them.”

HP and Cingular Wireless collaborated on the nc6400 to take advantage of Cingular’s UMTS/HSDPA network, which is available currently in 145 major metropolitan areas including 65 of the top 100 largest cities in 33 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. This mobile broadband network offers average download speeds of 400-700 kilobits per second, with bursts to more than one megabit per second.(4) UMTS/HSDPA is a global standard and natural 3G evolutionary path for GSM providers, with 142 UMTS networks and 72 HSDPA networks currently available worldwide.

“The global capability that the Cingular and HP alliance provides to customers presents a considerable advantage to those who need access to important information, whether they are on the other side of town, across the country or halfway around the world,” said Laura Johnson, senior director, enterprise solutions, Cingular Wireless. “The nc6400 Notebook PC with integrated HSDPA-based technology is the latest, powerful example of how the collaborative efforts of our two companies have resulted in the introduction of a world-class product that will keep customers better connected, more productive and increasingly competitive in the marketplace.”

Wireless LAN(5) and Bluetooth™ wireless technology complement the notebook’s convenient mobile broadband technology. The thin and light nc6400 also features a 14.1-inch diagonal widescreen display, an optional HP Privacy Filter that helps ensure the screen is visible only to the user, powerful Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processors(6,7) and support of 3D graphics to deliver the optimal balance of connectivity and performance.

The nc6400 is Microsoft Windows® Vista™ capable.(8) Additionally, it features HP Professional Innovations, a suite of hardware features and software solutions that includes technologies such as integrated biometrics and digital accelerometers designed to enhance security, improve ease of use and help ensure reliability.

The nc6400 with integrated UMTA/HSDPA-based technology is the latest result of HP’s alliance with Cingular Wireless. Most recently, HP and Cingular introduced the HP iPAQ hw6900 series Mobile Messenger with built-in GPS.

Availability and pricing(9)

The HP Compaq nc6400 Notebook PC with integrated Cingular Wireless BroadbandConnect is expected to be available in late December at a starting price of $1,599. HP nc6400 customers can get monthly unlimited Cingular BroadbandConnect service for $59.99. International plans also are available. A North American plan of 100 megabytes for $109 per month provides for usage in Canada and Mexico, as well as unlimited domestic data. Cingular’s global plan of 100 megabytes for $139 a month covers data usage in more than two dozen countries worldwide, as well unlimited use in the United States.

More information on the HP Compaq nc6400 Notebook PC and HP’s other mobility solutions is available in an online press kit at www.hp.com/go/Mobility2006.

About Cingular Wireless

Cingular Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, serving 58.7 million customers. Cingular, a joint venture between AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and BellSouth Corporation (NYSE:BLS), has the largest digital voice and data network in the nation – the ALLOVER™ network – and the largest mobile-to-mobile community of any national wireless carrier. Cingular is a leader in third-generation wireless technology. Its 3G network is the first widely available service in the world to use HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover®, the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Details of the company are available at www.cingular.com. Get Cingular Wireless press releases emailed to you automatically. Sign up at http://cingular.mediaroom.com.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended Oct. 31, 2006, HP revenue totaled $91.7 billion. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.

(1) High-speed access available within the Cingular Wireless network coverage area, which requires a separately purchased service plan. Use outside of the Cingular Wireless network is subject to roaming agreements. Check with Cingular Wireless for availability and coverage in your area.

(5) Wireless access point required and is not included. Availability of public wireless access points limited. Wireless Internet use requires separately purchased Internet service contract.

(6) Dual core is a new technology designed to improve performance of certain software products. Check with software provider to determine suitability. Not all customers or software applications will necessarily benefit from this technology.

(7) 64-bit computing on Intel architecture requires a computer system with a processor, chipset, BIOS, operating system, device drivers and applications enabled for Intel 64 architecture. Processors will not operate (including 32-bit operation) without an Intel 64 architecture-enabled BIOS. Performance will vary depending on your hardware and software configurations. See www.intel.com/info/em64t for more information.

(8) This system may require upgraded and/or separately purchased hardware, drivers and/or software to take full advantage of Windows Vista functionality.

(9) Estimated U.S. street prices. Actual prices may vary.

Bluetooth is a trademark owned by its proprietor and used by Hewlett-Packard Company under license. Intel and Core are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Microsoft, Windows and Vista are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance or market share relating to products and services; anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the achievement of expected results and other risks that are described from time to time in HP’s Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to the risks described in HP’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2006, and other reports filed after HP’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2005. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

Club Improves Customer Service by Accelerating Application Performance

SAN FRANCISCO, BUSINESS WIRE -- Riverbed Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:RVBD), the performance leader in wide-area data services (WDS), announced today that Hilton Grand Vacations Club, a subsidiary of Hilton Hotels, has selected and deployed Riverbed's Steelhead(R) WDS appliances to accelerate the performance of applications at its offices worldwide. Riverbed's Steelhead appliances have improved network performance and in turn, improved overall customer service by making the sales cycle more efficient. Hilton Grand Vacations Club has installed Steelhead appliances in offices in six locations to date: Orlando, Florida; New York; Las Vegas; the Big Island of Hawaii; Honolulu, and Tokyo.

Hilton Grand Vacations Club has a centralized network at its Orlando headquarters that connects to sales and resort offices around the world; these offices sell vacation ownership in resorts across the U.S. to new customers and also serve more than 100,000 existing members. While centralization has several important benefits -- the company does not need to have technical engineers at every office, for example -- the company was experiencing several challenges, including connection quality issues and latency over the wide area network (WAN). Connectivity varies from country to country; connections in U.S. offices have far more bandwidth than connections in offices in Japan, for example. In addition, Hilton Grand Vacations Club uses contract imaging to send contracts from branch offices to headquarters; these data files are very large and the time required to transfer files had an impact on productivity.

"We looked at a number of WDS products before we decided on Riverbed's Steelhead appliances," said Richard Jackson, senior director, technical operations, at Hilton Grand Vacations Club. "Gartner praised the product in its review, and a member of my team had previous positive experience with the Steelhead appliances. About seven months ago, we deployed a Steelhead appliance in Tokyo and one in Hawaii. The performance improvement was dramatic. From there the project took on a life of its own, and we now have appliances in locations all over the world."

Dramatic Improvements with Steelhead Appliances

Hilton Grand Vacations Club analyzed before and after metrics on the process of scanning contracts to find out what kind of impact Riverbed's appliance had on connectivity and latency. Contract scanning is complex; and involves imaging and OCR-based scanning, storing and indexing over a WAN connection to centralized storage. This process had been optimized for a WAN but even with the optimization pre-implementation, the process could take up to 10 minutes; with the installation of the Steelhead appliance, in many cases it takes less than one minute. CIFS file transfers that once took up to 10 minutes between Tokyo and Hawaii are now transmitted in less than five seconds.

"The Steelhead appliances have directly improved our customer service through improving our connectivity and application performance," said Jackson. "The bottom line is that we are responsible for making sure the network is performing at its best so our customers and support staff can conduct business and do their jobs in an efficient and effective manner. We have lots of tools to help us run the network, but we've seen a real and noticeable impact on our efficiency with the Steelhead appliance, and it's now part of our standard toolkit. Staff really appreciates the improved network performance and it has had a positive impact on their day-to-day activities by speeding up essential tasks. There's a cost benefit in keeping personnel in our small sales offices happy. In addition, Riverbed has improved the corporate view of IT and what it can do for the business."

Thursday, December 07, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO -- Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) today announced a cooperative support agreement with Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP - message board) to help customers protect their distributed data and take full advantage of heterogeneous data centers. The cooperative support processes for Riverbed's wide-area data services (WDS) solutions with NetAppR unified storage systems, NetApp NearStoreR near-line storage systems, and NetApp V-Series virtualization systems help the two companies to better work with large enterprise customers to address customer challenges with the replication, backup, and consolidation of distributed data. Customers can now dramatically reduce the amount of data that is replicated from a corporate data center to a remote disaster recovery site with a NetApp and Riverbed solution, significantly improving recovery point objectives of a disaster recovery solution and minimizing data loss in case of disaster.

Riverbed's WDS solutions enable organizations with more than one office to overcome a host of severe problems, including poor application performance and insufficient bandwidth at remote sites. By speeding the performance of applications between distributed sites, Riverbed's award-winning SteelheadR WDS appliances enable companies to consolidate IT, improve backup and replication processes to provide data integrity, and improve staff productivity and collaboration. Steelhead appliances have been deployed in organizations ranging from the world's largest corporations with offices around the globe to small companies with a couple of sites that are just a few miles apart.

"This cooperative support agreement means that enterprise customers will benefit from enhanced protection of their distributed data," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of product and alliances at Network Appliance. "The combination of Riverbed's WDS solutions and NetApp enterprise-ready storage and data protection solutions help customers to improve remote replication and disaster recovery processes."